The present invention is related to right angle electrical connectors, and is more particularly related to right angle electrical connectors for making multiple electrical connections between a daughter board and a mother board.
The present invention is an improvement of the invention described in applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 92,860 filed Sept. 2, 1987, entitled "Right Angle Electrical Connector". This co-pending application is commonly assigned to NCR Corporation and is hereby incorporated by reference. This previous connector uses an elastomeric member, which has a semi-cylindrical bottom portion, to press a flexible circuit sheet, having conductor patterns on the left side and the right side, against the left row and the right row of printed circuit board pads, respectively. These two rows of printed circuit board pads are separated by a non-conducting strip of he printed circuit board. The drawback of this design is that most of the pressure from the semi-cylindrical portion of the elastomeric member impinges upon the non-conducting strip of the printed circuit board and not against the printed circuit connector pads. Thus, to achieve the desired pressure against the printed circuit connector pads, the substantially-unused pressure against the non-conducting strip of the printed circuit board must be increased to an even higher level.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,884 issued Mar. 5, 1974 to Kotaka for "Electrical Connector Formed From Coil Spring" discloses a connector for connecting conductors on printed circuit boards using conductors formed from an axial cut spring. FIG. 8 shows a plurality of the patented connectors for making right angle connections between a mother board and a plurality of daughter boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,915 issued Dec. 9, 1975 to Conrad for "Electrical Connector" discloses an electrical connector having a body member, a sheet of flexible insulative material formed around the body member, a series of contact members on the outer face of the insulative material, and resilient means for urging the insulative material away from the body member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,625 issued May 14, 1985 to Frink et al. for "Circuit Board Housing With Zero Insertion Force Connector" discloses a circuit board housing for electrically coupling at least one circuit board to a mother board. A flexible insulation layer is formed around a pair of pad members and a resilient member. The edge of a circuit board is placed between the pad members, and a pair of jaws clamp the pad members into engagement with the circuit board. The resilient member is rotatable from a first position which is not in engagement with the mother board, to a second position which is in engagement with the mother board. Electrical conductors on the insulation layer provide electrical connections between the circuit board and the mother board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,530 issued July 9, 1985 to Ketchen for "Low Temperature Electronic Package having a Superconductive Interposer for Interconnecting Strip Type Circuits" discloses a right angle connector for making right angle electrical connections between vertical substrates and a horizontal substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,495 issued Apr. 8, 1986 to Geri et al. for "Modular Telephone Housing" discloses the use of a length of flat cable for making electrical connections in a telephone housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,596 issued May 6, 1986 to Bunnell for "High Density Mother/Daughter Circuit Board Connector" discloses the use of a multi-layer flexible circuit folded around a housing member to make electrical connections with contact buttons formed on mother and daughter boards in a right angle configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,530 issued Sept. 15, 1987 to Stillie et al. for "Shielded Elastomeric Electrical Connector" discloses the use of a multilayer flexible circuit surrounding but not attached to an elastomeric insert to make electrical connections between the conductor pads formed on a mother board and a daughter board in a perpendicular or right angle configuration. The freedom of movement between the flexible circuit and the cylindrical portion of the elastomeric insert reduces the [lateral] stresses on both of those members.